I tried making dalgona coffee, the newest TikTok craze, and it was definitely worth the hype (2024)

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So wait, back up a second. What exactly is dalgona coffee anyway?

Dalgona coffee has easily become one of the most popular quarantine trends, right up there with Zoom parties and baking bread.

The sweet and frothy drink has a pretty two-toned look that was made for social media, and its four ingredients are already in most people's kitchens.

The recipe couldn't look more simple:

1. Mix equal parts instant coffee, sugar, and hot water together until the liquid turns into a fluffy whip. Don't have a hand mixer? Just use a whisk!
2. Add to a glass of milk with a few ice cubes and voila, you're done!

It's a drink that looks deceptively easy to make — thanks in part to its popularity on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

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Dalgona coffee didn't even exist — by name, at least — before January, when the drink appeared on the popular Korean show "Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant."

During the episode, actor Jung Il-woo was clearly delighted as he sipped on a frothy two-toned drink. He said it reminded him of dalgona, a beloved street candy served in South Korea. And so, a star was born.

Following the episode, dalgona coffee became an instant hit in South Korea. And as people around the world began hunkering down at home, they became entranced by the frothy coffee as well.

Korean YouTuber 자도르J'adore's "quarantine coffee challenge" has more than 9.6 million views to date, and the #dalgonacoffee hashtag on TikTok has 170.4 million views at the time of writing.

It was finally time for me to see what all the fuss was about.

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I don't usually have the confidence to try out major cooking trends. I can barely make a presentable omelette, much less a starter for sourdough bread.

But that seemed to be a big part of dalgona coffee's whole appeal. The TikTok videos and Instagram stories made the coffee look quick and fun, like it all came together in a matter of seconds. No kitchen expertise required!

Plus, with most of my local cafés currently shut (besides those open for takeout only), dalgona coffee seemed like a delicious and simple substitute for my usual iced mochas.

I was in for a huge surprise — and a lot of Beyoncé.

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My dalgona coffee journey started out simple enough.

As with many people who have tried the trend, I already had most of the ingredients in my kitchen.

After picking up some instant coffee during my weekly grocery shop, I was all set. I didn't have a hand mixer, but multiple recipes had assured me that a whisk could still easily do the trick.

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The first step is pouring out the instant coffee. No problem!

Nearly all the dalgona coffee videos that I've watched call for two tablespoons of instant coffee crystals. Seeing as I have had many fiascos in the kitchen, I decided to follow their instructions to a T.

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Many of the recipes also call for equal parts sugar, which turned out to be... a lot.

There was a box of Domino Sugar packets lying around my apartment, which I decided to use for the taste test.

But it wasn't until I ripped through six individual packets to fill up my two-tablespoon measuring cup that I realized just how much sugar I was about to consume.

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After adding two tablespoons of hot water, it was time for my whisking journey to begin.

I had seen in some videos that, without a hand mixer, dalgona coffee can take anywhere from 8-10 minutes to make. Others said it required 400 whisks by hand. But I was undaunted as I remembered the wise words of Ina Garten.

"You have lots of time," she recently told her fans while making a massive cosmopolitan on Instagram at 9 a.m. "It's not a problem."

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I headed to my bedroom so I wouldn't wake up my roommate with the sounds of whisking at 9 a.m. and put on some Enya to get me going.

I had watched numerous dalgona coffee videos before making it myself, and the whole process seemed so soothing. I was hypnotized as I watched YouTube stars transform bowls of dark-brown liquid into caramel pudding, their comforting elevator music tinkling softly in the background. So, before I began whisking, I decided to put on the most relaxing song I know.

"Who can say where the road goes, where the day flows, only time," Enya sang to me as I slowly began to whisk, feeling calmer than most days I've spent in quarantine.

Little did I know, the song was foreshadowing a very long journey of my own.

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More than five minutes went by, but my bowl still looked like melted espresso ice cream. There wasn't a hint of froth to be found. I had long passed 400 whisks and my right arm was burning.

As sweet as her voice was, I knew Enya wasn't going to carry me through. It was time to bring out the big guns. It was time for Beyoncé.

At this point, I was still feeling confident. I put on "Get Me Bodied" (the extended remix, of course), which I believe is the best pump-up tune of all time. Running at 6 minutes and 19 seconds, I was sure the song would carry me to the end. I'd be sipping on frothy coffee before Bey was telling me to walk across the floor like Naomi Campbell.

Reader, I was wrong.

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Another 10 minutes passed. My right arm had lost all feeling. Many more Beyoncé songs had come and gone. I was convinced that I had messed up somewhere along the way.

It felt like my Spotify shuffle was taunting me. As Bey crooned, "Why don't you love me?" I couldn't help but glare helplessly at the soupy puddle before me.

But still I whisked, I whisked, and I whisked some more as these various thoughts ran through my head:

• Should I have put deodorant on for this?
• How will I explain to my editor that I screwed up the easiest recipe on the internet?
• Maybe the water needed to be hotter;
• Yup, definitely should have put on deodorant;
• I should listen to Beyoncé while cooking more often;
• This is a total disaster.

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When the timer hit 20 minutes, I was sure that I needed to throw everything out and start all over again. But then I looked closely at my bowl and realized that the color had changed.

My nearly-black puddle had turned into a pretty caramel. And the consistency was definitely thicker. I started whisking faster. My determination was renewed. My faith was restored! As Beyoncé sang "Love on Top," it felt like she was cheering me to the finish line.

"Now everybody ask me why I'm smiling out from ear to ear (They say love hurts) / But I know (It's gonna take the real work)."

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After 30 minutes passed, I finally had a bowl of frothy coffee before me.

The mixture was falling slowly and luxuriously from the whisk, taking its time to melt back into the bowl.

It was beautiful.

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All I needed for the last step was a glass of milk and some ice cubes.

Most dalgona coffee recipes simply state that the glass of milk should be two-thirds full. I opted for Trader Joe's soy vanilla milk, hoping it would make the drink taste even more like my usual Starbucks order.

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Then it was time to put the drink together, which just meant scooping dollops of the whip right on top of the milk.

I used an ice cream scoop for this, but it can easily be done with a spoon as well. The recipes I read were for a single serving, so I filled the glass to the top with almost all of my mixture.

Before taking my first sip, I couldn't help but sneak a taste. The whip was absolutely delicious, so frothy and sweet. I ended up licking the rest of the bowl clean, like a kid making brownies.

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After all that arm work, it was finally time to sit back and enjoy my drink. And with just one sip, I knew it was worth the hype.

Dalgona coffee is definitely sweet, but that caffeine flavor is still present in a nicely subtle way.

The drink tasted a bit like coffee ice cream, while the texture was very soft and light — like whipped cream that's just begun to melt into a mug of hot chocolate.

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I also found dalgona coffee to be super refreshing and surprisingly nostalgic. It reminded me of the drink my mom always ordered during our summers in Greece.

When I first started seeing dalgona coffee videos pop up on Facebook, I was surprised to see so many fellow Greeks writing in the comments.

"This is just a frappé!" they would cry. "We've been making this for decades!"

#frappe#vs#dalgonacoffee 😂

A post shared by Eva-Maria Stasinopoulou (@evamariastasinopoulou) on Apr 10, 2020 at 7:19am PDTApr 10, 2020 at 7:19am PDT

Like dalgona coffee, frappés are made with just instant coffee, sugar, and hot water. The only difference is that the mixture is poured into the glass first, and then commonly topped with ice and cold water or milk.

My mom absolutely adores frappés, and I hadn't seen one since my last trip to Greece more than a decade ago. Sips of dalgona coffee brought me back to those lunches by the Aegean sea. At a time when I can't be with my family, it was a much-needed trip down memory lane.

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After I realized how much sugar I was putting in the drink, I didn't plan to finish it. But the coffee was too delicious to resist.

I drank the entire glass so quick, I was actually tempted to make more. I couldn't remember the last time I had enjoyed something so much that I had completely made on my own.

Dalgona coffee is definitely an exercise in patience. But, especially in times like this, it's a task well worth taking on.

I can't tell you how rewarding it felt to finally see my bowl of ugly brown coffee water turn into this beautiful, Instagram-ready treat.

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I learned a few important tips along the way.

The whip mixture is created by a reaction between the coffee and water, so the amount of sugar you use can actually be modified. I'm not a frequent coffee drinker, so just one cup had me feeling hyper all day — and into the night. Next time I'll definitely cut the amount of sugar I use by half or more.

I was also whisking a little too leisurely at first. If you don't mind being in it for the long haul, or just want to get a good one-arm workout, I recommend putting on a show or podcast and accepting that the process will take awhile. Beyoncé also definitely helps.

But the biggest lesson I learned was to have a little more faith in my cooking abilities, and a lot more patience. Maybe the reason dalgona coffee has become so popular is because it's truly the perfect metaphor for our current situation. As Enya famously said...

"Who knows? Only time."

• Read more:
• Dalgona coffee, the whipped drink that's everywhere on TikTok, has become the perfect quarantine caffeine fix
• This TikTok shows a smarter way to make dalgona coffee while minimizing dishes
• Dalgona is a popular Korean street snack
• Ina Garten made herself a massive cosmopolitan at 9 a.m. because 'it's always co*cktail hour in a crisis'